From the very moment we met Erlinda Cordero, a student in our Seton Southwest class, we were taken by her awe-inspiring positivity, motivation and energy. She speaks openly about her life philosophies, vehemently encourages others to be the best people they can be and to take advantage of every opportunity they come across.
One afternoon we had the chance to speak to Erlinda in more depth about her life and after our conversation we understood much more of why her presence is so striking. Erlinda came to the United States from El Salvador at the age of 23. She left her native El Salvador after many years of living through the Salvadoran civil war. The war cost many Salvadorans their lives, including her high school best friend, and left an incredible mark on the way Erlinda lives her life today.
She explained to us there were many times she and her family had to move to stay safe and even her schooling was disrupted because it became too dangerous to make it to school everyday. It was a constant struggle of fear, loss, and the unknown. After hearing this, we questioned whether or not we could have had the same fighting spirit Erlinda has today if we had lived through her experiences.
It’s a question in which we are not sure we know the answer to, but what we do know is that Erlinda throws herself fearlessly into new situations. She embraced the day-to-day challenges of living in a new place with an unfamiliar culture and language and said “I can do this!” And, she did! She not only excelled in the ENGLISH @ WORK program, but told herself that after her graduation she had to keep on going. She had to strive for more. The more panned out and just a few weeks ago we learned that Erlinda took her U.S. citizenship test and PASSED!
She gives credit to ENGLISH @ WORK for helping her to improve her English, but we can’t take that the full credit. Erlinda is strong, intelligent, and extremely dedicated to whatever she takes on and is exactly the reason why we do the work we do. All she needed was a bit of help in the language department and her dreams took on full flight!
So thank you to Erlinda for her willingness to share her story and most of all – CONGRATULATIONS!/¡Felicidades!
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If you would like to learn more about El Salvador, we encourage you to read our profile on the country.Â